Affordable Cartier? Yes!

The word 'Cartier' definitely conjures up thoughts of sheer luxury and very expensive jewellery. However as this is Makeup Savvy I won't be talking expensive un-affordable items or even jewellery!

I'm talking Cartier perfume...

Last week while browsing through perfumes on Escentual.com I stumbled across something I'd never seen before - The Cartier Fragrance Discovery Set and to be honest I saw the iconic red box and that it was priced at only £15 and knew I had to have it! Which I guess does sound stupid - but I knew it involved perfume and I also knew I could use the box as a lovely piece of storage for say nail polishes or jewellery!

But I also really liked the idea of trying out a range of fragrances by a brand I had never tried before and that you can't just sample on the highstreet (plus the paper sticks that you spritz in department stores are just so pointless). But it gets even better you try the samples and then if you want to purchase a full sized fragrance from any of the samples you can use the £15 voucher you get sent against the purfume - basically making the discovery set totally free!

I did Google the set before purchasing but nothing really came up which is why I thought it would be handy to post what you do actually get and what the samples look like etc!

Plus my thoughts on the fragrances...

I have to say the presentation box didn't fail to impress - just how well it's been made and the look of the box is really perfect. Though I do feel giving this as a gift made lead the person to thinking the something amazing is going to be inside - when sadly it isn't a £5,000 Cartier watch but just a bunch of perfumes samples.

The discovery pack consists of a large luxury Cartier gift box, with the following fragrance samples:

1.5ml Delices de Cartier eau de parfum sample (Female)

1.5ml Delices de Cartier eau de toilette sample (Female)

1.5ml Essence D'Orange sample (Unisex)

1.5ml Must de Cartier sample (Female)

1.5ml Declaration sample (Male)

1.5ml Declaration Essence sample (Male)

1.5ml Cartier de Lune - New sample (Female)

1.5ml Roadster Sport sample (Male)

5ml luxury miniature of Delices de Cartier (Female)

I can't say the samples are presented in a way that you would expect from a brand as luxurious as Cartier, but then again you are only paying £15. But I did kind of expect them not to just all be thrown in there - but if it was for a gift you could definitely make them look prettier. The set does also come with a £15 off discount code which I mentioned before via e-mail so you could actually write down the code in a nice card if you were giving this as a gift.

As for which samples I liked - Delices de Cartier by far is my favourite out of all the samples and if I'm right in thinking the most popular Cartier fragrance as you get two small vial 1.5ml samples plus a luxury 5ml sample (see below). It definitely reminds me of Guerlain Insolence (which I've been re-purchasing since it came out) as it contains Violet, cherry and bergamot. But it's not as sweet as Insolence as it contains notes of pink pepper and sandalwood so it's definitely softer and not slightly more spicy. So if I did purchase the full size 30ml bottle with the voucher it would cost me £22 instead of the normal price of £37 which I think is pretty good!

Plus the bottle is rather beautiful! The other sample I loved but for a totally different reason is Essence D'Orange - which is summery and umm, orangey! There isn't much to say about this scent except that it's different and fresh and it definitely could be for both men and women - so if I did buy it I know my boyfriend could also have a spritz of it now and again especially as the smallest size is 100ml! With the voucher this would work out at £45 so abit pricier than Delices de Cartier but then again you do get a huge 100ml bottle.

I also quite liked Cartier De Lune but a full sized bottle does seem more pricey compared to the other scents that I prefer the most!

As for the ones I didn't like - Must de Cartier is pretty dam aweful I must admit! Musk I can deal with but Must actually smells likes must... just dry and also like moth balls. Really not good, but definitely something I could see my 75yr old gran going for.

All the other are fragrances for men and again I didn't love any of them really, all just abit to typical man smelling. I guess I'm too use to my boyfriend wearing Paul Smith fragrances now so they just seemed abit to Brut like!

The voucher code has to be used within 60 days of receiving it but my birthday is coming up so I may treat myself to Delices de Cartier before then or send the code to my boyfriend with a link to Delices de Cartier as a big hint!

As for the wonderful Cartier box it is now holding all my favourite nail polishes (it can hold up to 55 polishes would you believe) and definitely looks pretty swish!